Vanessa Villafuerte, MPH is a television journalist and health communications leader with a deep understanding of the medical and healthcare landscape. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International and Intercultural Communication from Pepperdine University (2016), where she began her broadcast career reporting and editing across local media platforms and interning with Telemundo 52 and Los Angeles Confidential Magazine. Following graduation, Vanessa spent years anchoring and reporting for news outlets across the country, including KESQ/CBS Local 2, News-Press & Gazette Company in Arizona, KGET-TV 17 in Bakersfield, and KMTV 3 News Now in Omaha, Nebraska.

Vanessa returned to Los Angeles to serve as Public Information Officer for the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, translating high-impact health policy studies for public release. While pursuing her Executive MPH at UCLA, she served as Senior Media Relations Officer at UCLA Health, leading public relations and media coverage for critical clinical departments, including pediatrics, urology, otolaryngology, pharmacology, ophthalmology, and clinical nutrition.

During her EMPH studies, Vanessa applied her public health training to system evaluation and health equity initiatives. For her summer consulting project, she collaborated with classmate Alan Rozet to partner with agilon health, designing a standardized framework to evaluate care management programs for high-need seniors in value-based care settings. Additionally, for the EMPH Sinaiko Business Plan Competition, Vanessa teamed up with classmate Elías Rodriguez to launch Salud en Casa, an innovative mobile healthcare initiative delivering in-home pediatric urgent care to underserved families in Lamont (Kern County) to address social determinants of health and improve community health outcomes.

Upon completing her EMPH in 2025, Vanessa returned to broadcast journalism as News Anchor for CBS47 and KSEE24 in Fresno, California, anchoring CBS47 Eyewitness News.